Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Aniara Opera Swedish Gloom beyond Midsummer

Those Swedes, with their Midsummer celebrations…

Regional madness aside, “Aniara” carries a universal message. It’s not a happy opera, but it is a compelling one. Somber, inevitable, and unafraid to confront the grim truth, “Aniara” pushes beyond our solar system into the spiritual void.

With its polyglot embrace of serialism, electronic music, and jazz, the work is rarely-heard, but worth checking out. The recording is long out of print and quite pricey on the collectors’ market. I broke into a cold sweat when I found my copy at @[100064570938690:2048:Princeton Record Exchange]. There’s also a Swedish film, based on the original poem (not the opera), from 2018.

Listen and despair this afternoon at 3:00 EDT. In terms of Scandinavian art, “Aniara” does Edvard Munch one better – in space, no one can hear you scream.

April 16, 2023
Odyssey on the Radio This Sunday

I’d be the first to admit that some of my shows have been more like groundouts to first. But this one is a guaranteed Homer.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” tune in for an hour of high adventure and satisfied bloodlust, as we listen to musical evocations of “The Odyssey.”

We’ll hear Ernst Boehe’s symphonic poem “Departure and Shipwreck,” from his cycle “From Odysseus’ Voyages” (1903-05), and Benjamin Britten’s radio play “The Rescue of Penelope” (1943), narrated by Dame Janet Baker.

Odysseus, of course, is one of the heroes of the Trojan War, waylaid time and again, on his homeward journey, by Poseidon and the frailties of his own men. It takes him ten years to make his way back to Ithaca. When he gets there, he finds his wife beset by boorish suitors all vying for her hand and his throne.

What happens next pushes all the same buttons that are still pushed whenever Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger apply the camouflage, strap on the bandoliers, and sheathe the big knives. Along the way, there’s also some meaningful father-son bonding. Leave it to Homer, who always knew how to lend a little class to the classics.

Zing goes the string of Odysseus’ bow! Just as Grandma rendered in needlepoint, there’s no place like “Home Sweet Homer,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

April 16, 2023
Armchair Travel Through Film Scores

This week on “Picture Perfect,” settle in for a little armchair traveling as, musically, we follow the English abroad.

We’ll hear selections from “Enchanted April” (Richard Rodney Bennett), “A Passage to India” (Maurice Jarre), “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Thomas Newman), and “Around the World in 80 Days” (Victor Young).

Bennett, quite the accomplished concert composer (and occasional torch song singer), supplies a sensitive score for the 1991 Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel about four English ladies who spend an idyllic month at an Italian villa.

Jarre received his third Academy Award for his music to David Lean’s final film, a 1984 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel of repression and racial tension in colonial India.

Newman incorporates traditional Indian elements into his score for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the 2012 surprise hit about English pensioners reinventing themselves in retirement in Jaipur.

And Young won his only Oscar (alas, posthumously bestowed) for “Around the World in 80 Days,” the star-studded, light-as-a-feather, though admittedly charming mega-winner at the 1956 Academy Awards. It takes longer to watch the movie than it does to read Jules Verne’s novel – though it does provide a rare opportunity to see Ronald Colman in color.

No need to pack your valise for Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: There’s no balloon in Verne’s original, but as long as there’s champagne, who cares?

April 15, 2023
Austin Powers Rescheduled Sci-Fi Livestream Next Week

The good news is… no Austin Powers tonight!

The bad news is… it’s rescheduled for next week.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, our groovy discussion of “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997) has been put on ice. Literally. The Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner fourth season opener has been cryogenically frozen for seven days.

That gives you one week to brush up on your James Bond, Derek Flint, Matt Helm, John Drake, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Russ Meyer.

Oh yes! And also to raise the ransom of ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

We’ll keep a lazy eye out for your frilly cravats in the comments section. It’s our happening, baby, and it will be freaking us out, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

April 14, 2023
Aranjuez Guitar Concerto NJ This Weekend

Opportunities to enjoy a genuine guitar concerto – that is to say, an acoustic guitar with symphony orchestra – in person are scarce. That being the case, it should be self-recommending for you to check out this weekend’s concert with the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra, as the centerpiece of tomorrow night’s Latin-inflected program will be not just any guitar concerto, but possibly the most famous of all time – or at the very least, of the last century – Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.”

Even if you can’t pronounce it, you’ll recognize the music! Here’s the soloist, Peruvian artist David Galvez, to tell you more about it:

The program will also include works by Arturo Marquez and José Pablo Moncayo. Music director Daniel Spalding will conduct. The concert will be held at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton, Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

For tickets and more information, visit capitalphilharmonic.org.

April 14, 2023

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